Modular marble race games have been created to allow the user to construct his or her own track or pathway along which a marble rolls. Some of the games use ramps and tubular connectors, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,516 to Wirth, to permit the marble to roll from one user created course to another. In some games, such as that shown in the Wirth patent, the marble drops down the middle of the connecting tube to transfer the marble from one course to another while in others, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,838,870 to Morse, the marble drops from one ramp to another.
It has been discovered that although many of the prior art marble race games are quite enjoyable in use, they all suffer from a common shortcoming; the marble generally courses through the game quite quickly which lessens enjoyment and requires the user to continually restart marbles.